Aliens: Beyond Time and Space

West Side

Hadley's Hope

Akame surveyed the area around her, eyeing the many pieces of debris that lay scattered across the ground

"Don't see anything useful here. Mostly just scrap metal."

She looks down and clutches her stomach, as it makes a low growling noise.

"Haven't eaten anything since we left the hideout." Akame muttered to herself "Now I'm hungrier than ever!"

She looks up to face the direction towards base camp "Maybe I can sneak away from here, go back to camp, and come back with dinner before anyone notices?" She mulled over that idea for a moment.

As the greatest skilled assassin the Empire and Night Raid ever had, slipping into camp without Susanoo and Lubbock noticing should be child's play.

"But I need time to cook, and Su would most likely be standing near the food stores getting ready to fix our meals when we return."

Akame decided to give up on her schemes and bear with the hunger.

"Better to eat food later, than none at all as punishment for disobeying the boss's orders." She concluded, and with a sigh, resumed with picking her way through the debris field.

After turning over a large piece of metal that seems to resemble floor grating, Akame's crimson eyes spotted the prize hidden underneath.

"Looks like I finally found something." Akame thought while reaching to pick it up. Holding the object in both of her arms, she recognized some of its features "It's some sort of firearm." she commented "And a weird one at that."

She studied the gun over in various angles to examine its dimensions "I count three barrels, three triggers, there's two grips in the back and a shoulder harness. Who could've made a weapon like this?"

During her time as an assassin for the Empire and later Night Raid's, Akame became well acquainted with the concept of firearms. From the large bulky rifles used by the Imperial soldiers, to the small handheld pistols used by both common adventurers and noble folk alike. She's even learned of a few odd ones. Like the medium sized rifle wielded by one of Aria's guards the night when Night Raid first met and recruited Tatsumi.

There's also the guns Seryu used, the night she ambushed Mine and Sheele, which ended with the latter's death. Mine said the Jaeger member had two guns that resembled tonfas, two guns that were fused inside her arms, and finally that last one hidden inside her mouth, which she used on Sheele to momentarily paralyze long enough for her wretched monster Imperial Arm to catch and devour.

And lastly, there's Mine's Imperial Arm, Pumpkin. A gun capable of firing potent shots depending on Mine's danger situation and emotional state.

An idea formed in Akame's head "I should show this to Mine. She's more well versed with firearms than I am, she might have a better idea of what kind of gun this is."

Looking over towards the north side of the Atmosphere Processor, she squinted to see if she can spot her pink clad comrade in the evening's fading light. "Can't see her. She must be away from my line of sight, somewhere behind the buil-"

Akame froze as her eyes rested on the processing station, recalling its damaged state and the similar state of the other buildings. She then glanced down at the weapon she's holding, then back to the station

"No way! Could this have been the cause of that explosion?"

The theory sounded doubtful, but Akame went over the facts that supported it. Whoever built this place, likely built this gun as well.

Their buildings' architecture also demonstrates that they might possess technology far more advanced than that of the Empire's.

And there's the Imperial Arms, some of them can cause devastation similar to the one that overtook this place. Like Pumpkin for example. all it takes is for Mine to really get herself into a critical situation and the gun's destructive potential multiplies exponentially.

"If they really did make this firearm to be on par with that of an.Imperial Arm. Mine should be able to determine it's capabilities."

Akame reasoned. After gently slinging the weapon over her shoulder, she then carefully walked towards the north side of the station in search of Mine.

South Side

Hadley's Hope

Chelsea stood up and wiped the sweat off her brow. After spending some time sifting through the random pieces of scrap collected from across her domain, she only found three boxes containing some strange items.

The first two had weird tools and instruments she's never seen before and the third one had what seemed to be ammunition to some sort of firearm. Other than that, no weapons and no info.

"Dammit! What a waste of time!" she groaned with disappointment and fatigue. She glared down at her dirt covered skirt and her shirt's long sleeves.

"I just had these cleaned." Chelsea muttered "Thanks, Najenda! For dragging us all the way out here and having me do grunt work." She began to sigh and look up towards the setting sun

"Not much longer till dark. Then Najenda would have to call off the search. It'd be too dangerous to keep poking around here at night."

Eagerly awaiting the sun to go down, Chelsea examines her surroundings to review what she's found so far. The crates she found are stacked neatly to one side. On her left, she sees the hulking wreckage she came across earlier

"Nothing in there for sure. Just some seats and more weird instruments. Also some empty boxes and crates."

She looks over the exterior, wanting to pass the time

"Some sort of vehicle for sure. It looks like a flattened armored carriage of some sort. But, I don't see any hitch for the horses." Her hands traced along the composite armor shell

"Sure looks tough, but I guess it wasn't enough to withstand the blast huh." She taunts, while eyeing the nearby processing plant

"Wait? I see something."

Walking over to the processor's heated perimeter, Chelsea narrowed her eyes for a better look. Off in the distance, laying against the base of the station, was another vehicle wreckage.

"It's twice as big as the one I found." Chelsea looked back at the first wreckage "Big enough.to crush that one. But is it big enough to cause that explosion? And where the hell are the bodies? If both wrecks had survivors, where could they have gone?"

She remembered the armored carriage had its side door left open, and she's sure the interior had been picked clean by someone. The other vehicle was too far and too mangled to see if anyone could have survived its crash.

"Better go and tell Najenda about my findings, then she can get Leone or Tatsumi to come and retrieve these boxes." 

After brushing off some of the dust and dirt off her clothes, Chelsea hurriedly ran back towards the eastern side of the atmosphere processor.

Far from where Chelsea had been patrolling, Harrigan steps away from cover, hiding behind a large boulder while observimg the ponytailed woman. He had been covered in dirt from crawling through a small opening from Lubbock's Cross Tails. Obviously, it was not a good choice to wear this much of an armor if he doesn't want to attract Luckily for him, only Chelsea was present at the south side for now

"Better check out this place before she comes back with more trouble."

Harrigan immediately went to the unknown armored vehicle. The shape was clearly broader than the standard APCs he used back in LA, and the interior of the wheels were mangled beyond repair. He immediately entered the vehicle and found unknown crates, cleanly stacked one another and on top of each other.

"Well... That's some good luck for you Mikey. Some space-stuff that I do not know." Harrigan sighed as he found nothing useful for him in that empty vehicle.

"Perhaps I can wait for the girl to come back and help me out..." He contemplated asking Chelsea for help; however, he notices that the sky is getting darker. What's more, the moon was color red instead of the usual white with greyish spots. He surmises that Chelsea won't be coming back here for the night

All the more reason to hunker down within the vehicle until the first light of dawn. He slowly closes the door, as to not attract any attention. One by one he unbuckled the weapons he salvaged from the predator ship, then he patched the shattered windshield with a loose panel from the vehicle. Once he had done that, he immediately makes himself a bed out of everything he can scour through, ripping apart cushion seats and laying them side by side.

As he lies exhausted, he begins to have thoughts about his home world, more importantly how the hell did he and the rest of the predators ended up here. Then he started thinking about Leona before finally dozing off

Leona... I hope she's okay ...

As far as he can remember, the last thing he saw her she was being carried away by an ambulance, with one of the responders informing him that she was pregnant.

Atmosphere Processing Station

Hadley's Hope

"Careful now. Easy does it." murmured Tatsumi as he tried walking along the remains of a high platform, where he landed upon entering the station. Earlier, he got careless and assumed the platform was going to support his weight, until the loose floor grating gave way beneath his feet.

He quickly grabbed a nearby railing to prevent his fall and pulled himself back up. He began inching his way across like this afterwards.

"So far so good. Now if I could just reach the other side. I think I see a way down." Tatsumi crossed the last few meters of the platform, and reached the other side.

He then turned to survey the area around him.

"Walls are lined with all kinds of piping and ductwork. Most of it looks blown apart by that explosion from the report." Tatsumi traced his view up along the ceiling, and spied an opening towards the darkening sky which brought in light from the setting sun

"There's where the top portion got blown off. Seems like it's facing west. I guess Akame got her work cut out for her, sorting through all that debris.

Tatsumi shifted his attention back to what still lies ahead of him "And so do I. Now, how do I get down from here?" He peered into a nearby shaft that leads down, and counted the floors set between him and the bottom

"There's a good number of levels. I should start with the one below me, and make my way down."

After some time, Tatsumi reached the platform at the bottom of the elevator shaft. Unable to hide his frustration and disappointment, henslam an armored fist against a wall.

"Dammit! I swept the whole place, and nothing to show for it!" he groaned out "Mine will never let me live this down."

He can already imagine a conceited Mine standing atop mountain of treasure laughing down at him for his incompetence. He turns around as if to tell her to shut up, then he realized no one was around.

"Damn you Mine! I hope you come up empty handed, then we'll see who's laughing now!" 

Out the corner of his eye Tatsumi noticed something on the floor.

"What's this?" Tatsumi asked himself, while picking it up.

He recognizes it as a jacket when he held it up in front of him. "Who could this belong to?" he searched the pockets, and pulled out a strange card with words stamped on it. "Lieutenant First Class. Ellen Ripley." And next to the words was a photo of a middle aged woman with brown, medium length hair, and dark eyes.

"Quite a serious looking person" Tatsumi commented. Turning the card over, he found there was more lettering to read.

"Weyland-Yutani Corp. Mission Consultant in service of the United States Colonial Marines Corps" the whole line of words baffled him.

Mission Consultant were the only words that made sense.

"It probably means this person; Ellen Ripley may know a thing or two as to what happened here." Tatsumi surmised and looks at the photo again "At least we got a face to go on. I should get back and show it to the boss. She'll know what to do next."

He places the card back inside the jacket and ties it around his waist for carrying. Making his way to the station's ground entrance, Tatsumi stepped into the main corridor, only to have Leone run into him after coming out from behind a nearby corner. Both Night Raid members stumbled back and looked at each other in panic before relaxing.

"Hey Big Sis." Night Raid's younger member greeted "You scared me there a little. Be careful next time, okay?"

Leone ignores Tatsumi's request and began running, while calling back to him

"Sorry, Tatsumi! No time to explain, but we have to get out of here right now!" Tatsumi ran after her to catch up

"What's wrong Sis? Why are we leaving already?" 

She doesn't respond this time and keeps running for the exit. With no other choice, he follows her, still wondering why Leone is acting so strangely. And why for the first time since he met her, did she look so afraid?

North of Hadley's Hope

HHHRRSSS!

A loud threatening hiss reached Mine's ears, prompting her to react by raising Pumpkin to her shoulder and placing her finger on the trigger. She aims the sights towards the outskirts' forest area, were the hissing sound emanated from.

"Come on." Mine whispered "Show yourself. Pumpkin here is waiting to blow you into the next world" She waited to shoot at whatever might come out from the distant trees.

A few minutes later, nothing happened. Mine lowers her weapon, puts on her visor, and looks back towards the perimeter

"If you're not coming out, I'll scan you out".

She raises Pumpkin again. Armed and ready, Mine slowly approaches the trees sweeping her visor back and forth. "I thought all the Danger Beasts were cleared out of here by the explosion? Maybe it's a straggler that wandered back?" she reached the edge of the landscape and stopped in front of the forest

Hhrrsss…

Another hiss can be heard from within, growing faint.

"It's moving away." Mine realized, as an image shows up on her visor

"I see Cross Tails' barrier, that Lubbock made. Why can't I see what's making that sound?" She checks her visor. It was set to home in on molecular discrepancies. Anything that didn't naturally grow there should show up on screen.

"Must be capable to blending in with its surroundings on an environmental scale. Quite a tricky Danger Beast. Let's see if you can hide from infrared." 

Mine pressed a switch and her visor began to show thermal imaging

"Okay. Show me where you are, so I can blast you." 

Mine surveyed the forest and began moving forward, making sure she didn't come close to the barrier. The last thing Mine wanted, was to become entangled in Cross Tails' Wire Threads. Then she'll be caught and stuck here while waiting for that pervert, Lubbock to come and cut her loose. And those jerks, Chelsea and Tatsumi will be there laughing at her mishap and calling her helpless.

"Like Hell a genius sniper like me is gonna let that happen!" she fumed in anger

"And where the hell is that Danger Beast… there!" Her visor detected a heat source, off to her right in a nearby thicket. It wasn't big. It seems to be lying down and not moving.

"Looks like it plans to ambush me." Mine steadies Pumpkin and takes aim "Unfortunately for you, I don't need to attack up close!"

Her finger rests on the trigger and she stops "Wait. It might not go down in one shot and I already outfitted Pumpkin for less powerful rapid fire. I need to scan and find a head, to set up a kill shot."

Without looking away from the target, she takes her finger off the trigger and uses it to switch her visor back to scan mode

"You may not stand out, but if I see a pair of eyes, I'll just shoot between them."

To her surprise, an image began to appear on screen, and she immediately pointed Pumpkin's barrel away from her target.

The image shows the back of a human woman, lying on her side

"A Survivor! I finally found one!" Mine slings her Imperial Arm over her shoulder and ran to the side of the person. She kneels down to examine her, and grins in revelation

"Looks like I've scored double prizes!"

She looks down at two people lying in front of her, an unconscious Ripley holding an unconscious Newt in her arms.